“Supernatural”: “Clip Show”

Hey folks! It’s good to be back. Filling in for Arik who has a family illness to deal with. (Hope your Gram gets well soon, Arik. Our wishes are with you and your family).

Also, since I wasn’t here last week, I don’t know if we’ve beaten around this bush or not, but could the main reason Sam is so affected by these trials be because he has Demon blood in him?

Anyways… now that I’ve gotten that out of my system, we open in the out-country backwater in Lost Creek, Colorado where Tommy Collins – hey, remember that kid Sam and Dean saved from the Wendigo like a forever ago? Yeah, that one – is on a vacation with his girlfriend.

The once kidnapped, twice shy hunk of man-candy gets paranoid when he starts hearing loud roars and between freaking himself and his girlfriend out, like the well-prepared Boy Scout that he is, he pulls out his portable flame-thrower… which turns out to be for naught, because the voices are only in his head. But something invisible attacks him and starts tearing him apart as if he was being attack by the Wendigo itself.

Tommy Collins, former Wendigo victim. Deceased.

Meanwhile, back at MOL-HQ… we return where we left off last week. Namely, our favorite starstruck pair reunited in the headlights of the Impala.

Sam and Dean are looking for a suitable demon to cure for their FinalTrial – apparently the MOL kept records of every possession from Borden, Lizzie all the way to Crane, Ichabod – when Cas appears fresh from a good night’s sleep.

He even tries making a horrible small talk praising their “bunker” and Dean’s future ping-pong table, but Dean is having none of it. In fact, he even pretends that Cas isn’t there…

Because, as every other couple in the world knows, if there’s anything worse than sleeping on the couch, it’s the dreaded Silent Treatment. And poor Cas, untrained in the paltry customs of humanity, is learning it firsthand.

… and leaves to fix some breakfast for Sam, who’s all “I may be sick, but I’ll sleep when I’m dead”.

Cas and Sam commiserate over their non-Angel healing injuries, and the final test which is “to cure a demon”, when Dean returns with a half-drunk beer and some jerky and mini buttercups… and admits that they running low on supplies.

Cas, like any good partner-in-the-doghouse, volunteers to join Dean on his supply run and Dean finally, not only acknowledges him, but also starts calling him out on every mistake he did…

“You ignored us… You bolted with the AngelTablet and lost it because you didn’t trust me. You didn’t trust me. Sorry’s not gonna cut it… not this time… So you can take your little apology and cram it up your a*s…”

When Cas argues that he thought he was doing the right thing, Dean reminds him that the road to hell is paved with good intentions. And in their case, literally. And the look on Cas’ face…

Seriously! It’s not even wishful thinking anymore. Any fool with eyes can see that these two are utterly, madly, inlove with each other… just refusing to admit it for some Godforsaken reason.

I wonder long are TPTB going to keep dangling the proverbial carrot before us? Especially, with Cas coming back as a regular next season and Dean rumored to be getting a new girl.

Anyways… moving on. The aforementioned fool with eyes, aka Sammy-boy, interrupts the escalating make-up-eye-sex with an inquiry about Room 7B…

…which turns out to be a large filing/evidence room for all the MOL cases.

Sam corners Dean and tells him to cut Cas some slack.

Dean argues that “if it was anybody else… and I mean anybody… who’d pulled that kinda crap, I’d have stabbed them on principle. So why should I give him a free pass?”

While Sam searches for the “Weird!!!”, Dean chances upon a discrepancy between two stands and pulls them out to reveal what looks like a Torture dungeon complete with Devil’s Trap and collars and manacles…

“So… we have a dungeon?” “Finally!”

Sam’s evidence, on the other hand, turns out to be a movie reel.

Movie Night in the Winchester Household

The film is about a new and upcoming Exorcism ritual that a Padre Max Thompson has devised. The interviewer is Laurel, the woman who was later possessed by the demon Abbadon – the White-Eyed Demon that killed Henry Winchester.

The reel records the Padre and his assistant carrying out the ritual, but something goes wrong and the Vessel explodes.

Also, the ritual isn’t the Regular exorcism… and even Cas can translate only one of the latinish words: Lustra which means “to wash… or cleanse.”

And that’s not the worst part. Apparently, the rituals were carries out in the MOL dungeon itself.

Since the reel is cut short and they have no other follow-throughs, the boys decide to track down the assistant Padre who’s still alive and working in St. Louise, MS.

Cas starts to follow Dean as their third wheel, only to be rebuffed harshly.

“Sam is more damaged than I am” Cas protests weakly… almost resignedly, but Dean once again reminds him that he can trust Sam, damaged or not, to have his back, more than he can Cas… and “we don’t need your help”.

That… is just wrong! I mean… I can understand Dean’s reluctance… but seriously… it’s Cas. Cas has sad-puppy eyes…

…and he looks like a lost puppy kicked by its Master.

St. Louise, Missouri. Sam and Dean meet up with the then-assistant Padre, who tells them that Father Thompson had some unorthodox ideas regarding Exorcism.

He believed that a demon was a human soul, broken by it’s time in Hell – as Dean can very well attest – and believed that with right measures, it could be washed off that tainted and restored with its humanity.

Padre confesses that the recorded exorcism was the first and the last exorcism he attended and the only one to go horribly wrong. A few days later, the Padre was torn to shreds, followed soon after by the MOL.

But Father Thompson did leave behind his notes and research which the then-asst. Padre hands over to the boys after learning that the barely alive, blood-hacking Sam is planning to shut the Gates of Hell and vamoose all the demons back into their unholy caves.

Meanwhile at a fill-up station near the bunker, Cas goes shopping.

I need Pie

After picking up beef jerky, beer, toilet paper, eggs, even a copy of the latest Busty Asian Beauties for Dean, turns out mart is out of Pie. Of all the things to be out off… the horror!!

In desperation, Cas starts threatening the cashier, because they can’t be out of Pie… and if that isn’t a devoted (read whipped) husband, I don’t know what is… when Metatron pops in, with “put the virgin down, Castiel. We need to talk.”

We are the Free Thinkers… We are movers and shakers of the world forever it seems.

Cas is obviously overwhelmed to meet Metatron – The Metatron – or as he is known Marv.

Marv has finally caught up with the history of the Winchesters and Castiel from KevinTran, the rescued Prophet. And according to Kevin, Cas and Marv have a lot in common, namely they are free thinkers and currently on Heaven’s most wanted list.

And now that he is back, he wants to catch up with The News from back home… because from what he has heard through his sources, without the Archangels – that the Winchesters so gallantly killed – almost all the half-cocked garrison heads, like Naomi, are now fighting for the right to become The NextGod.

As it was already mentioned in the last episode, since God has already eloped and Marv was one of the last ones to actually see him apart from the Archangels, it now makes him the supreme-most authority in Heaven.

And he wants to have a family meeting so all the power-hungry angels can sit together and talk rationally amongst themselves about how to run things smoothly… or fight it out – Last Man Standing style – in the relative confinement of Heaven without the fight spilling onto Earth, which will happen sooner than later.

He tells Cas to follow him to a Eugene’sDiner in Ohio so they can discuss the things further.

Back at MOL-HQ, the brothers realize that Cas is gone and Dean starts harping about “I knew it! I never trusted the guy…” etc etc. Poor bastard really has a terrible run of luck, doesn’t he?

Subject: Peter Kent. Class: Demon. Status: Redeemed.

Moving on… the brothers study Father Thompson’s notes and listen to his recorded experiments.

Apparently the father asked the demon to confess his transgressions and kept injecting them with his own purified blood till they showed signs of remorse, after which he doused them in holy water and recited his self-created Cleansing Chant.

The recording they are listening to is indeed a complete success – the Brothers are flabbergasted – and the demon is cured.

The notes give the ritual in exact detail. Now, all they need is the blood – check, consecrated ground – easily available, and a demon volunteer – also somewhat easily available…

“So what? We summon a demon?” Sam asks, but Dean has a better idea “… Or we could use the one we already have.”

Remember the poor Laurel/Abbadon whom Henry Winchesterhadshot with the Devil’s Trap embedded bullet, and the brothers had had pickled for the rainy day? Yeah, he/she has volunteered – by default – to be the lucky participant in the ground-breaking discovery.

Nephilim

Meanwhileat Eugene’s Diner in Ohio, Cas gets hit on by the creepy-acting waitress… who tingles my Spidey senses. The waitress brings their orders and leaves them well enough alone and Metatron resumes their conversation about shutting down Heaven.

He explains that God had had him devise ESD systems for all the storage yards as such. Leviathans get out of control? Lock them in Purgatory. Demons wreaking havoc? Slam the Gates of Hell. Angels being dicks and trying to destroy the World…? You get the idea. He says that while Sam is doing Hell Trials, Castiel can do Heaven Trials.

“Why me?” Cas asks the obvious question.

Marv reminds him that even before he went MIA, he was just a paper-pusher and has zero experience in combat… even more now, because of his more than millennia of absence. “I got the plan, you got the muscle”.

He warns that it won’t be easy. Castiel will need to make some very hard decisions and keep making them until the last possible minute.

“I understand,” Cas says in that typical naïve way of his, but Metatron shakes his head and points to their waitress. “No, you don’t. See our waitress? She’s the first trial. You gotta cut her heart out.”

Somewhere near MOL-HQ, Sam and Dean bring out corpse-less head and headless corpse of Abbadon and their dad’s old surgical kit and set about putting Humpty-Dumpty back together again.

Abbadon comes back to life with promises of fulfilling all the debts she owes them… but the brothers have already taken care of that by chopping her hands off. Also, the bullet in her noggin prevents her from going all The Frankenstein’s Monster on them.

She says that she knows all about Thompson’s experiments. He was a big name back in the day, and making a lot of noise and her bosses did not like it. Also, she was the one to tear him apart, followed the entire MOL, who had commissioned him.

Dean gives her the “Karma’s a Bitch that bites you in the ass” speech, saying that since she stopped the experiments, she’s the new lucky volunteer for its revival.

However, just as they start preparing the consecrated ground for the next step, Sam gets a call on his personal unlisted number. It’s Crowleah. “You mean the salesman?” Abby sneers.

“Try King of Hell,” Dean replies, quite smugly, and the poor woman, who still has not got the memo that all her bosses are dead, thanks to the very men holding her captive, gets a shock of her un-life.

The brothers rush outside to take Crowley’s call and after deflecting his blatant attempt to turn the conversation into something more phone-sex-y, Sam gets down to business.

Back in the storage, Ol’ Abby telekinetically summons her hand, and instructs it to pull the bullet out from her palate.

Crowley suggests they check the Denver Times headlines – which speaks about Tommy Collins’ freakish death – then “sexts” Sam an address to check out.

They rush to finish the Abby-job before checking the new lead, but Abby has managed to escape – with her hands. Sam finds the bullet and knows they are basically screwed.

The address Crowley sends is in Prosperity, Indiana… which Dean recalls is from that thawed-chicken leg divorced witches case.

They rush to the house of James Marsters’ cup-cake making assistant Li’l Cupcake only to find her baked in her own oven.

Crowley calls again to gloat and explains that he is going to kill every last person the boys have saved…

“How do you even know…” Dean starts, but Crowley cuts him off with “I have my sources” while the camera pans to show the entire collection of bargain-bin paperback series “Supernatural” by Carver Edlund (aka Chuck Shurley).

Special Edition Supernatural: Heaven and Hell.
Complete with Dean’s return from Hell… and introduction of Angel Castiel.

Seems Becky has more in common with the King of Hell than her obsession with “The Moose”.

Anyways… the brothers start placating him that they don’t have the Tablet, Kevin does and he’s in the wind.

But Crowley doesn’t care about that. Now that he knows about the Trials, and that only one is remaining, he wants the brothers to stop this nonsense at once or he’ll keep sending them the message – a person every twelve hours – till they get it. He tells them to check out an address of a hotel room in Indianapolis in exactly 57 mins.

In Ohio, meanwhile, Cas and Marv stalk the poor waitress.

At first she tries to reason with them “I mean nobody harm, I just want to live my life.”

But Marv’s all “Sorry abomination, it’s nothing personal”… and she loses it. “You want an abomination, I’ll show you an abomination.”
She goes all Hulk on them , quite easily considering she’s twice as strong – take notes Castiel – and puts up a hell of fight, but Cas stabs her in the neck from behind.

Angel Trial #1 complete and Cas is the Chosen One. Now he doesn’t even have another choice.

Sara Blake

The boys make it in record time to find, that the room belongs to Sara Blake, Sam’s rebound after Jessica’s death way back inSeason 1.

Sam reunites with his once-night stand and gives her the lowdown on what’s going on.

She says that having seen him in action, she trusts him to protect her. Sam spies a ring on her finger and she says that her husband is in search-and-rescue – “I have a type, huh” – and their daughter is one year old.

Sam, on the other hand, says that nothing has changed for him, but she knows it’s not true. She can see that she he has changed from the young college boy to a hardened warrior. She misses his old hairstyle though.

Dean comes in with the gear and they set to work building a Devil’s Trap, salting up the place… you know, the usual…

And it’s all going according to plan, until at the stroke of midnight, instead of a demon coming blazing in through the window, Sara starts asphyxiating… and Crowley calls on the motel line to gloat.

Dean yells his trademark “son of a bitch”, but Crowley silkily corrects him “Son of a Witch actually. My mommy taught me a few tricks.”

The brothers start hunting for the offending hex-bags, ransacking the room, in vain while Sara asphyxiates on the floor and Crowley croons “Sam Winchester took that girl’s breath away”, probably quoting the book.

He keeps talking explaining that while he not knew the Trials, he has a general idea and from on is going to keep everything Hell related close to his chest.

He also taunts them with their now famous “Saving people. Hunting things. Family Business” quote from Wendigo,saying that the only reason they live, they keeping fighting… the only thing that makes everything they’ve done… all the crap they’ve been through… worth it, is knowing that people out there are safe. But if he takes that away… if the very people they saved are killed in their own safe havens, then their lives will no meaning… it will never be worth it. He suggests a deal… they leave him and his people alone – a complete and utter surrender – the Trials, Tablet, Prophet – and he will do the same.

Sara asphyxiates to death. Dean angrily throws the cordless receiver against the wall… and Sam spies a small hex bag on the floor among its scattered ruins. Very clever that.

Defeated Sam suggests that they should take this deal because maybe it’s as good as it’s gonna get for them and they can’t win all the battles all the damn time.

But Dean stubbornly insists that “Winchesters never Compromise”. They are gonna get through… and they are gonna get through the way they always do… with a Give ‘em Hell attitude, Impala and Mullet Rock.

And wow! I can’t believe today’s Nostalgic roller coaster.

The Destiel was, as always, was par excellence. Cas looking through Busty Asian Beauties and threatening someone for Pie – I need PIE! – and the talk of angel-human babies was just ice-cream on the fresh-baked pie. Apparently Misha and Jensen apparently know what they are doing. The question is… Do The Writers?

I don’t know why but these it feels like Jared is trying too hard… does it feel that way to anybody else?

And can you believe that we are almost at an end, with just one episode of the season left? Share your thoughts in the comments!